Weaponized Nostalgia

You know that feeling you get when you walk into a restaurant and order your favorite soda pop brand and it turns out they don’t sell that brand and you have to settle with something different and then you randomly find twenty dollars on your way back to the spaceship? Yeah, The Teal Album is a lot like that.

“Africa” Official video – Weezer feat. Weird Al

Composed entirely of cover songs, The Teal Album is Weezer’s concept album that every band that lasts longer than a decade makes at some point. The difference here is that Weezer seemed completely uninterested in rewriting the songs to fit their specific style of rock, which serves to create a feedback loop of nostalgic feelings fighting with your memories own recollections of the songs on display. Deciding instead on true by-note recreations of the music, the band leads us through a chronologically ordered trip through the songs that inspired the band itself in what at first seems like an unimaginative and even lazy collection of cover songs but is actually a deeply loving homage to the music of their own youth.

“Take on Me” Official video – Weezer

It almost goes without saying that this album won’t be for everyone, sheer subjectivity aside. If you didn’t enjoy the music the first time around, you likely won’t be swayed by a note-for-note remake. But if you are the type of person who knows every single syllable and offbeat to these classic songs, this album is that thing you didn’t know you were looking for but will be happy you found.